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primary schools take into account all these factors while teaching English. It is expected of every teacher to use whichever methods depending on the topic of his lesson as well as on the
individuals in hisher class. We insist on teachers because they are the ones called upon to teach English with no prior training as such. To explore the situation in depth, we have
chosen to focus on the situation at Montessori School. Our focus is on evaluating the methods implemented while teaching English in this school in order to assess their relevance and
achievements. Where weaknesses are thought to exist, suggestions have been made in order to improve the teaching and learning process.
1. Background of the study
To begin with, the school owes its name to a brilliant and polyvalent Italian woman by the name of Maria Montessori. She lived from 1870 to 1952 and was an educator, a
doctor as well as a philosopher. Maria Montessori began to develop her philosophy and methods in 1897, attending courses in pedagogy at the University of Rome and reading
the educational theory of the previous two hundred years. In 1907, she opened her first classroom, the Casa dei Bambini, or Childrens House. Montessori education is
fundamentally a model of human development, and an educational approach based on that model. The model has two basic principles. First, children and developing adults
engage in psychological self-construction by means of interaction with their environments. Second, children, especially under the age of six, have an innate path of
psychological development. The Montessori school in Bujumbura constitutes an international meeting point for
learners attending it. Information obtained from the school authorities in October 2009 indicated that indeed all continents are represented as there are: Burundians, Tanzanians
Zanzibaris, South Africans, Kenyans, Ethiopians, Algerians, French, Belgians, Indonesians, Laotians, Pakistanis, Indians, and Arabs. A total of 18 nationalities are
found in the school, which makes the latter a bit of a melting pot. Needless to point out are the different languages spoken by the students during break time for example.
2. Montessori school language policies and goals
Behind Montessori school language teaching lies the principle to teach and develop communication skills among learners. As stated earlier, Montessori school is a very
complex school where more than nineteen languages are in regular use; yet, only two of them are taught, that is, English and French. Besides, learners are prepared to face up to
the challenges of attending so- called ― national and international schools‖ located in
Burundi or abroad, where indeed they have to be competitive when it comes to displaying
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intellectual knowledge and creativity. As a matter-of-fact, the academic motto at Montessori is ―give your child the very best start on the road of success‖. That is probably
why teachers are university graduates. Montessori school has also a policy of training teachers who did not attend pedagogical studies. The latter must undergo special training
in order to acquire the knowledge necessary to cope with their jobs. This is an opportunity for them to learn about ―what to do‖, and ―how to do it‖, as well as on ―why to do it‖.
One draws from this the authorities‘ awareness that in whatever they do in language
teaching, they have a purpose, an aim to be fulfilled sooner or later. It is after that special training that all teachers are gathered together just to undergo additional training.
Additional competence for the primary school teacher lies with the ability to display a good model of what he is advocating. He must be able to put theory into
practice himself. He should be able to reflect on the use of different learning techniques and styles of teaching so that he can try to develop his own teaching approaches.
3. Children‟s learning styles
